ASU Baseball: Devils escape close game, sweep Washington State

As the nation’s remaining undefeated team, ASU baseball held on for a sweep of Washington State defeating the Cougars 6-5 to improve to 19-0 on the season.

Arizona State is the last undefeated team in D-I baseball. ASU defeated Washington State, 6-5, to win their 19th straight game to start the season, the second-best start to a season in the program’s history.

Both Saturday and Sunday’s games were decided by one run, just the third and fourth games of that type this season.

Arizona State’s Alika Williams went 4-for-4 at the plate, including two RBIs. WSU’s Collin Montez had a notable afternoon as well, with two doubles and an RBI on 3-for-4 batting.

RJ Dabovich struggled on the mound, allowing multiple earned runs for the first time since February against Notre Dame.

He threw just 3.2 innings, facing 20 batters and throwing 86 pitches. Blake Burzell allowed two earned runs as well.

“I think what you saw a little bit out of Blake today was just nerves getting out there and getting the better of him,” head coach Tracy Smith said. “That goes back to what we saw a lot last year, when these guys are freshman, I don’t care how talented they are, there’s still a learning curve, and he set the table for Brady [Corrigan] to come in there and clean it up a little bit.”

Corrigan escaped an inherited situation with two men on and had three strikeouts in two innings of relief. Erik Tolman earned the win for ASU, and WSU’s Zane Mills received the loss. Chaz Montoya closed the game, earning his second save of the season for the Sun Devils.

“I was going to come and throw as hard as I could,” Montoya laughed. “That’s how it is, I mean, bases loaded, one run game, two outs, I mean, that’s pretty much my job, get that guy out by any means necessary. I knew to just come in, even if I had to throw as much as I could, just to get that one guy out was my plan.”

ASU’s Drew Swift went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a double, after missing 12 straight games with an injury. Both Smith and Swift himself discussed how eager he was to come back to the team.

“It was definitely tough, it was hard to sit back and watch all the winning. It was not fun on the bench, I was urging to get back in yesterday’s game,” Swift said. “[Smith] actually wanted to go to the backfield with me before the game and test out how I was. He didn’t want to start me, I know it, but I basically told him I was going to go, I kind of forced myself in there.”

ASU will try to continue winning with Swift as they face California Baptist Wednesday for their mid-week game. The team will face Oregon in their first road series of the year next weekend.

All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.